Constructor:Victor Fleming and Andrea Carla Michaels
Relative difficulty:Normal Monday, maybe slightly easier than normal (so ... Easy-Medium?)
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THEME: homophonic verb phrases—
Theme answers:
Sincerely, objectively, this is not good. This is far below the quality of puzzle the NYT should be putting out on a regular basis. Yes, even on Monday. Not only is the theme stale and corny, the fill is mediocre to bad in a way that shouldn't be acceptable any more, especially in an easy Monday puzzle. LOOIE RRS ASSN PEDI AND EMDASH ISDUE MAH AMIS ESAI UNPEG SACS ERTE ASIS SSGT ... for starters. It's an avalanche of the common, awkward, tedious. Virtually all clues are oriented toward some time roughly 30-50 years ago. I can't believe the NYT needs Mondays this badly. S.O.S.
But back to the theme—come on. If this is a theme ... you can make another just like it without much effort. SEARS SEERS, BARES BEARS, HAULS HALLS (Transports cough drops?) etc. And the themers we get today aren't even wacky. They do not even have the questionable virtue of Wackiness. I mean POLLS POLES, as clued, Does Not Require The "?" That Is Attached To It. It's literal. It's not even an unimaginable cuckoo kind of a thing. Just a thing. That rhymes. Homophones. Again, ugh. No real imagination here. As for solving problems, there were none except at the very end, when I had [Baby back ribs source] as PIT (as in "barbecue PIT"). I stood outside a barbecue joint while drinking a vanilla malt earlier today, so that may have had something to do with the error.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty:Normal Monday, maybe slightly easier than normal (so ... Easy-Medium?)
Theme answers:
- POLLS POLES (17A: Asks Warsaw residents their opinions?)
- HEALS HEELS (11D: Cures the backs of feet?)
- SELLS CELLS (27D: Finds buyers for smartphones?)
- ADDS ADS (39A: Increases the number of commercials?)
- PARES PEARS (62A: Peels some fruit?)
Maud Solveig Christina Wikström (born 12 February 1945), known professionally as Maud Adams, is a Swedish actress, known for her roles as two different Bond girls: in The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), and as the eponymous character in Octopussy (1983) as well as making a brief uncredited appearance in A View to a Kill (1985) . (wikipedia)
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Sincerely, objectively, this is not good. This is far below the quality of puzzle the NYT should be putting out on a regular basis. Yes, even on Monday. Not only is the theme stale and corny, the fill is mediocre to bad in a way that shouldn't be acceptable any more, especially in an easy Monday puzzle. LOOIE RRS ASSN PEDI AND EMDASH ISDUE MAH AMIS ESAI UNPEG SACS ERTE ASIS SSGT ... for starters. It's an avalanche of the common, awkward, tedious. Virtually all clues are oriented toward some time roughly 30-50 years ago. I can't believe the NYT needs Mondays this badly. S.O.S.
[29D: Bette who won a Golden Globe Award for "Gypsy"]
But back to the theme—come on. If this is a theme ... you can make another just like it without much effort. SEARS SEERS, BARES BEARS, HAULS HALLS (Transports cough drops?) etc. And the themers we get today aren't even wacky. They do not even have the questionable virtue of Wackiness. I mean POLLS POLES, as clued, Does Not Require The "?" That Is Attached To It. It's literal. It's not even an unimaginable cuckoo kind of a thing. Just a thing. That rhymes. Homophones. Again, ugh. No real imagination here. As for solving problems, there were none except at the very end, when I had [Baby back ribs source] as PIT (as in "barbecue PIT"). I stood outside a barbecue joint while drinking a vanilla malt earlier today, so that may have had something to do with the error.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]